Tax Day with Tux Duck

 

Guess what? I found the small Belleek Castle! It's a replica of Blarney Castle.

It's also a Christmas tree ornament and a bell. As far as I know, the vase that is a castle tower is not based on any real castle. Here they are together; don't ask why they are leaning away from each other like they can't stand one another, because I don't know.

I got another sticker from DuoLingo:

"O meu nome e Chapeu Famoso." Back in college, I had a Portuguese TA who had us do a unit on travel where for some reason we learned the word for "hijack," and another unit on signs of the zodiac. It has always been a great comfort to me that I can still vaguely remember how to say in Portuguese, "Hello, my name is Famous Hat, I am a Capricorn, and I am hijacking this airplane." You just never know when that might come in handy.

Travalon suggested today's blog post title. We had our taxes done this morning, and our accountant is so cool that I wish I could hang out with her more often than just 45 minutes once a year. Then we stopped to get some bubble tea at Dreamy Teazy. They have a cool setup that seems to be for taking photos.

It's probably supposed to be for the couple, but Travalon took the photo because at the moment there was nobody else there to do it. Then I went back to work at home until lunchtime, when we took a walk down to the dock. It was so beautiful outside. For some reason I found it very moving to see large flocks of waterfowl flying north, maybe to Horicon Marsh. Spring is finally here! Travalon took some photos of our old friend Tux Duck (he has been hanging around our dock for years) and some other birds.

These are sandhill cranes, just like the first bird picture above.

There were northern shovelers in the distance.

Here is Tux Duck coming toward us.

And this is a mourning dove on the roof.

The couple we were sitting with at the Elks Club on Tuesday were telling us about a talk they went to on the strange ways animals die, and the one that shocked them most was a bald eagle that attacked a loon, and the loon pierced its chest with its sharp bill. I was not surprised; I said, "There's a lot of bird-on-bird violence. Keep in mind that they're just modern dinosaurs." Sometimes it does feel like birds live in their own world where they fight with other birds and eat other birds and really only interact with other birds, but then I remember the mink stealing an egg from the goose's nest last year, and I realize they do have to put up with us mammals quite a bit. When I went for a walk in the afternoon, the pair of cranes who always hang around our neighborhood were walking down the street, and we cautiously gave each other a wide berth. I have never had any issues with them, but I'm respectful. People have told me the cranes chased them back into their house, but what did they do to get that kind of response? It makes you wonder.

I get done with work at 5:00, and at 4:59 I heard the train coming so I logged out less than a minute early and hurried to the spot where I could see it, and it was just coming into view. If God is still speaking to me in Train, maybe He was saying that it was good we chose to stay home tonight. We were invited to a fish fry down in Verona, but Travalon wanted to watch March Madness games, and I wanted to talk to Tiffy, so we turned down the invitation. I felt slightly antisocial for doing so, but because we did, I saw the train. It does seem like lately whenever I make a decision and then wonder if it's the right one, I see a train because I'm in the right place at the right time. Of course, last night there were so many other things going on besides the ukulele strum - the Brazilian band was playing, an antiwar group was having a meeting, there was a Quebecois jam, and there was a free concert on campus of Israeli pop music - and while there are train tracks running by the Lone Girl, I never saw a train. So did I make the wrong choice? Or am I just putting too much importance on seeing a train?

Famous Hat